Colleen Anderson's Blog, page 45

Women: Neither Poison Nor Possession

I'm getting extremely tired and pissed off with women getting blamed for a helluva lot. In fact it's almost enough to turn me into a rabid feminazi. The only problem is that I'm an egalitarian and I don't believe one race or gender or religion should get special rights over another.

Creative Commons "Her Eyes" by Ranoush (flickr)

With that in mind, women are not your property. They don't belong to you, or me or any man or any religion. They belong to themselves. On a good day we're called the fairer sex. On a bad day we're called the weaker sex and taken advantage of, raped, murdered, abused, locked away and chastised, to name a few. I'd like to think we live in a world where women are treated equally and get equal pay for equal work. Unfortunately that would only be a microcosm and even in Vancouver women are raped and murdered, or considered the chattels of men.

Here are just a few ways in which women have not yet been accorded equality as human beings:

Honor killings–rarely do you hear of the man being killed but it does happen in conjunction with the woman's death and seems specific to certain cultures (but I'm not a cultural anthropologist). The woman is interested in someone not of her station and the family, usually the father or brothers kill her to avenge the wrongs to their honor. What BS that is. Honor is what you make it and you're responsible for your own not for anyone else's.
Adultery–like the famous Ashtiani case in Iran, which isn't exactly treating many of their people fairly, women get charged with adultery in certain countries where they will be stoned or likewise killed for their indiscretion. Again, rarely do you ever hear of the man being called to task whether he's the one married or the one with a married woman. Regardless of such draconian measures it's always the woman's fault and she suffers the brunt. Adultery takes two as does sex. In these countries a woman rarely can even say she was raped because the men have more rights and say she was loose or cheating, not matter what they did to her.
Female circumcision–don't get me wrong, women are also responsible for this because they've bought into this dominance over women and castrating them so they get no enjoyment from sex. Because gosh, yet again it's only men who get to be the ones sowing their wild oats all over the place.
Murder–it's such a large category, from such monsters like Picton preying on women to a man who kills his wife because she's leaving him, as if she ever belonged to him, as if murder ever makes sense for such an offense should she even have just been a bitch. If we killed every bitch and bastard out there, we certainly wouldn't be worried about overpopulating the earth.
Seductress–she dressed like she was asking for it. She deserved it the way she was dressed. This of course puts the judging of women's fashion into the eyes of the beholder and one person's acceptable clothing (think Amish) is not another's. This presumes an attitude based on clothing that can be completely false.
Hiding, cloistering or veiling women–Yeah we hear about the burkah and the naqib and women locked away where only their men can see them. But I ask as always, why don't the men have to veil themselves. It's no affront to whatever god a person worships. It's a way for a man to control or own a woman, and be jealous enough he wants to covet her. I don't care what any woman says; at heart is a gender different treating them like their poison or possession.
Poison–a woman's period is filthy and bad and of the underworld. She taints things. I went to some Native (First Nations/Indian) healing circles through one year. Women who had a period had to wrap their lower extremities in a blanket because their energy would "ground out" the energy of the eagle feather. If it's that powerful, can't it be used to loft things higher too? And sweats; a man could go in, in just shorts. A woman had to wear something down to the ground (in some sweats their arms must be covered to the wrist too) because they might entice men. These sweats were 3-feet high, black as pitch and hotter than hell. No one is thinking of touching anyone let alone themselves. Yet again, the onus was on the woman to hide herself but the men could be half naked.

Eve's lot in life wasn't being weaker or inferior. What it was, was having to bear the brunt for the fact men can't control themselves and are animals to women. Do I believe this? Not really. But it's what's put out there, if you lift the veil.

Again, I am an egalitarian and I think each person should be judged on their own merits, not their skin color, gender or religion. All of any group isn't bad or good or evil or stupid or whatever. I love men but not the stupid, bigoted, racist, misogynist ones. The list above is by no means complete but I'm seriously getting pissed off hearing over and over how women are the ones who suffer the worst for crimes of the male or for just being female. It's up to each of us to stand up against this sort of attitude.

Filed under: crime, culture, life, people, politics, religion, security, sex Tagged: adultery, bigotry, burkah, misogyny, murdering women, owning women, rape, seductress, sex, sexuality, women

Women Belong to No One:Not Posion Nor Possession

I'm getting extremely tired and pissed off with women getting blamed for a helluva lot. In fact it's almost enough to turn me into a rabid feminazi. The only problem is that I'm an egalitarian and I don't believe one race or gender or religion should get special rights over another.

Creative Commons "Her Eyes" by Ranoush (flickr)

With that in mind, women are not your property. They don't belong to you, or me or any man or any religion. They belong to themselves. On a good day we're called the fairer sex. On a bad day we're called the weaker sex and taken advantage of, raped, murdered, abused, locked away and chastised, to name a few. I'd like to think we live in a world where women are treated equally and get equal pay for equal work. Unfortunately that would only be a microcosm and even in Vancouver women are raped and murdered, or considered the chattels of men.

Here are just a few ways in which women have not yet been accorded equality as human beings:

Honor killings–rarely do you hear of the man being killed but it does happen in conjunction with the woman's death and seems specific to certain cultures (but I'm not a cultural anthropologist). The woman is interested in someone not of her station and the family, usually the father or brothers kill her to avenge the wrongs to their honor. What BS that is. Honor is what you make it and you're responsible for your own not for anyone else's.
Adultery–like the famous Ashtiani case in Iran, which isn't exactly treating many of their people fairly, women get charged with adultery in certain countries where they will be stoned or likewise killed for their indiscretion. Again, rarely do you ever hear of the man being called to task whether he's the one married or the one with a married woman. Regardless of such draconian measures it's always the woman's fault and she suffers the brunt. Adultery takes two as does sex. In these countries a woman rarely can even say she was raped because the men have more rights and say she was loose or cheating, not matter what they did to her.
Female circumcision–don't get me wrong, women are also responsible for this because they've bought into this dominance over women and castrating them so they get no enjoyment from sex. Because gosh, yet again it's only men who get to be the ones sowing their wild oats all over the place.
Murder–it's such a large category, from such monsters like Picton preying on women to a man who kills his wife because she's leaving him, as if she ever belonged to him, as if murder ever makes sense for such an offense should she even have just been a bitch. If we killed every bitch and bastard out there, we certainly wouldn't be worried about overpopulating the earth.
Seductress–she dressed like she was asking for it. She deserved it the way she was dressed. This of course puts the judging of women's fashion into the eyes of the beholder and one person's acceptable clothing (think Amish) is not another's. This presumes an attitude based on clothing that can be completely false.
Hiding, cloistering or veiling women–Yeah we hear about the burkah and the naqib and women locked away where only their men can see them. But I ask as always, why don't the men have to veil themselves. It's no affront to whatever god a person worships. It's a way for a man to control or own a woman, and be jealous enough he wants to covet her. I don't care what any woman says; at heart is a gender different treating them like their poison or possession.
Poison–a woman's period is filthy and bad and of the underworld. She taints things. I went to some Native (First Nations/Indian) healing circles through one year. Women who had a period had to wrap their lower extremities in a blanket because their energy would "ground out" the energy of the eagle feather. If it's that powerful, can't it be used to loft things higher too? And sweats; a man could go in in just shorts. A woman had to wear something down to the ground (in some sweats their arms must be covered to the wrist too) because they might entice men. These sweats were 3-feet high, black as pitch and hotter than hell. No one is thinking of touching anyone let alone ourselves. Yet again, the onus was on the woman to hide herself but the men could be half naked.

Eve's lot in life wasn't being weaker or inferior. What it is, is having to bear the brunt for the fact men can't control themselves and are animals to women. Do I believe this? Not really. But it's what's put out there.

Again, I am an egalitarian and I think each person should be judged on their own merits, not their skin color, gender or religion. All of any group isn't bad or good or evil or stupid or whatever. I love men but not the stupid, bigoted, racist, misogynist ones. The list above is by no means complete but I'm seriously getting pissed off hearing over and over how women are the ones who take the brunt and suffer the worst. It's up to each of us to stand up against this sort of attitude.

Filed under: crime, culture, life, people, politics, religion, security, sex Tagged: bigotry, burkah, misogyny, murdering women, owning women, rape, seductress, sexuality, women

Publishing: How To End Your Career In Five Easy Steps

Here's how you do it:

Steal articles from other writers
Publish those articles
When the writer finds out and asks for an apology and compensation send an arrogant reply
Have a Facebook page where people start posting, because that writer wrote about it on her blog
Don't say anything and watch your career go up in smoke in 24 hours

The internet has sped up the access to information but it has also sped up karma. On November 3rd, Monica Gaudio http://illadore.livejournal.com/30674.html posted on her Live Journal how she'd been ripped off. A magazine called Cooks Source took her article,which she posted on this website: http://www.godecookery.com/twotarts/twotarts.html and wholesale printed it in their magazine, without her permission and without compensation. When she found out she contacted the editor Judith Griggs and had a bit of to and fro in emails. Next, she says:

After the first couple of emails, the editor of Cooks Source asked me what I wanted — I responded that I wanted an apology on Facebook, a printed apology in the magazine and $130 donation (which turns out to be about $0.10 per word of the original article) to be given to the Columbia School of Journalism.

What I got instead was this (I am just quoting a piece of it here:)

"Yes Monica, I have been doing this for 3 decades, having been an editor at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine. I do know about copyright laws. It was "my bad" indeed, and, as the magazine is put together in long sessions, tired eyes and minds somethings forget to do these things.

But honestly Monica, the web is considered "public domain" and you should be happy we just didn't "lift" your whole article and put someone else's name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me… ALWAYS for free!"

Let's break down this lovely and arrogant reply:

She claims she knows copyright laws, however they are long and complicated and as she goes on, she doesn't know the first thing about copyright, let alone its convolutions.
She says the web is considered public domain. Again, that is absolutely wrong as there is original graphic art, books, songs, magazines, etc. posted on the web and many people's personal blogs like this one, and none of it is public domain unless it says so.
She claims "it" as in copyright infringement happens a lot especially in the workplace and on college campuses. Perhaps it does, but workplaces fire people and campuses boot students who are caught plagiarizing someone else's works.
She says Monica should be happy they didn't lift the article and put someone else's name on it. So I guess it's okay to lift an article and keep Monica's name on it.
She tells Monica her article needed editing and now Monica can use it for her portfolio, forgetting that in most cases the author can still approve edits, should the author know the magazine is using the story.
As well, she can't understand why Monica would want money if they edited her article, forgetting that this is the job of an editor, when they have bought a piece and that the author is still paid. Though somehow, this editor thinks Monica should pay her because she stole the article, printed it, edited it without permission and then Monica should be grateful.
She then goes on to say she never charges writers for advice. Thank god for that because her advice sucks.
Oh and the writers always write for her for free. Wow, because writing is worth so little and no one should be paid and she is so mighty and her magazine so godlike they should just grovel in the mud and feel blessed to be noticed by such an entity.

Wow. The sheer arrogance in this and lack of any real apology or understanding of copyright or the editing process has buried this woman in hellfire. How do I know? As I post this, I think back to only 24 hours ago when I first read Monica's piece, then checked out Cooks Source's meager webpage and their Facebook page. I was the third person to post there in regards to their appalling behavior.

In the last day about 3,000 people have posted and Cooks Source is the laughing stock (just like soup but with less taste) in many writing circles, not to mention the newspapers. How to kill your mag. Of course, good ole Judith thinks it's great. Here's what she posted about 16 hours after the debacle ensued:

Well, here I am with egg on my face! I did apologise to Monica via email, but aparently it wasnt enough for her. To all of you, thank you for your interest in Cooks Source and Again, to Monica, I am sorry — my bad!

You did find a way to get your "pound of flesh…" we used to have 110 "friends," we now have 1,870… wow!

Best to all, Judith

(Should we edit her supposed apology and point out she misspelled "apparently" and then get her to pay us for it?) I guess she doesn't realize that most of us don't give a damn about the magazine, that she owes Monica more than an apology, not to mention all the other authors that she's stolen from, which has come to light because of this. These friends should be enemies and the magazine has sunk itself or at least Griggs' career. Will she surface again? Oh sure, just like the scum in the proverbial barrel. But any smart writer will not come within 100 feet of anything she's involved in. Interestingly, their meager webpage now has nothing listed under the "About" or "Contact Us" pages.

Karma is a bitch.

Filed under: crime, culture, news, people, publishing, Writing Tagged: cooking, Cooks Source, copyright, copyright infringement, fraud, Judith Griggs, magazine articles, Monica Gaudio, pies, publishing, Writing

Bigotry and the Dumbing Down of the US

The US continues to perpetuate the stereotype that Americans are stupid. There is always a truth in a stereotype. While I know many  intelligent Americans I wonder at the great gobbets of them who have such a bigoted and kneejerk reaction as to stop using their faculties for reasoning, deduction and fairness. No political system is perfect and really, democracy only works with 100 people or less (in my opinion) before its edges get a little rough.

Nine years after 9/11 and the stupidity seems to be mounting, not lessening. Certain small-minded, fear-laden people are equating the building of a mosque near ground zero with terrorism and other silly notions. They've used such rabid comments even in their Republican and Tea Party campaigns. What comments? Oh, let's see, equating a Muslim to a terrorist, showing a picture of a nearly stereotypical turban-wearing man as a terrorist, calling candidates of Lebanese descent (and Christian) as being Arab. The amount of ignorance, fear mongering and bigotry is astounding.

Now, not all republicans are bad, or so right wing that they can only see sideways, but this attitude that everyone of the Muslim faith is a jihadist terrorist is outright ridiculous and dangerous. Why dangerous? Well if someone kept calling me a terrorist or some other nasty phrase when I was not I would tend to be less forgiving of anything they did and maybe just maybe would decide that if I was already branded then I may as well play the part.  The best way to show the idiocy of such allegations and get sense into the thickening skulls of such people is to give a comparison. If all terrorists are Muslim and therefore all Muslims are terrorists, then all Klu Klux Klan members are Christian and all Christians are KKK. And what is KKK but a terrorist group too? Well, you say, that's only KKK and they're a freakish group but not the same as terrorists. Still, the overt labeling is dangerous and inaccurate.

If a man has an obsession with eating pickles and then kills someone, is it because of the pickles or the man? If someone reads a murder mystery and decides to commit a crime that might just resemble that story, is it the story's fault or the person's. Responsibility and choices lie with the individual and very few groups all think the same. I talk specifically of religious groups. There are orthodox and non-orthodox, liberal and conservative aspects to most religious paths, as well as branches and branches. Look at Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Muslim faiths. There are many varieties on the theme.

The mosque in New York would be like mosques everywhere else. They have not said that the mosque's agenda is to teach terrorism and it's retarded (how can you tell that this makes me angry) to believe that's the mandate. I know several Muslims who are quiet about their faith, like many Christians or Jews. Here's another question: should a religion move into another country and plant its religion doing missionary work and pushing its faith on the people who have other traditions. Think of all those early Christian missionaries and the ones today, going all over the world to do "good works" but in the process trying to convert people. In the past that conversion was often accompanied my abuse and murder.

I'm not that astounded that people are so biased as to not see clearly and whine about the mosque in New York. But I am astounded at some of the campaigns going around with outright racism and bigotry in their messages. Like you can run a country on denouncing terrorists and prejudicing people against those who are innocent. Can anyone say Hitler? I don't expect any American to read this who thinks there should be no mosque at ground zero. What would be best of all would be a temple/church/altar of every faith in a circle at ground zero. Now that would show that perhaps the faiths can come together and let everyone be, in peace.

Filed under: culture, history, news, people, politics, religion, security Tagged: 911, bias, bigotry, ground zero, Jihad, New York, racism, Republican campaigns, stupidity, terrorists

ChiZine Publications Update

ChiZine Publications continues to get good reviews on the books that they are publishing. It's very important for selling books and selling more of them to spread the word about publishers and authors. The best is when the publisher has a massive budget, but even so they only designate so much money to marketing and advertising and big names will get more because it brings in more revenue.

There are many ways to market and some of the ways are social media (Facebook, Twitter, websites), bookstore displays, attending conventions, doing readings and signings and of course alerting the media through press releases and review copies. Reviews can get a fair amount of attention and helps the writing world as well as the readers know about trends and authors and the genres out there.

So here are some of the reviews (and a pre-order):

Paul Tremblay's In The Mean Time: http://www.allthingshorroronline.com/2010/10/paul-tremblays-in-mean-time-quiet.html
Craig Davidson's Sarah Court: http://backlisted.blogspot.com/2010/10/review-sarah-court-by-craig-davidson.html
Gemma Files' Book of Tongues: http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/editorial-1670/A-Book-of-Tongues-by-Gemma-Files
Aaron Dries' House of Sighs, the Fresh Blood winner is now up for pre-order in hardcover at Horror Mall:http://www.horror-mall.com/HOUSE-OF-SIGHS-by-Aaron-Dries-Limited-Ediiton-p-21331.html

You can check out all ChiZine Publications books at: http://www.chizine.com/chizinepub/

Filed under: art, culture, entertainment, fantasy, horror, news, people, publishing, Writing Tagged: Aaron Dries, books, Chizine Publications, Craig Davidson, Gemma Files, Paul Tremblay, publishing, reviews, Writing

Selling Manuscripts and Formatting

I  have just started up as a slush reader for ChiZine Publications. This is somewhat different from the reading I do on poetry for Chiaroscuro (Chizine), the magazine, or the stories I read as fantasy editor for Aberrant Dreams. CZP publishes books and collections so a person is asked to send in a synopsis and the first three chapters of their book. By the way, I've been asked before what slush means and it is the submissions sent into a publication. There are usually several readers before the submission gets to the editor, the person who makes the decision on what is ultimately kept and what is rejected. Because most publications get hundreds of submissions a month, it can take time to get through them all and to move efficiently there are assistant editors or readers. These people determine if the manuscript is interesting and good enough to be sent on for consideration. In most cases, everyone starts in the slush pile, unless you're an established and well-known writer.

One of the first things anyone wishing to sell a manuscript should do is research the markets. Make sure you're sending to a company that publishes the kind of stuff you write. You would not believe how many people pluck names off of the internet like seeds in a sunflower and send out their manuscripts without actually knowing the market. Second, read the instructions. And follow them. There is some tiny leeway such as if an editor asks for Times New Roman and you do Courier font. They may take the manuscript and they may not. If the fonts are similar enough, you're probably okay but the more errors you make the less likely it is that you'll get to the stage of even having your submission read. Editors read hundreds and hundreds of manuscripts and they read them quickly to stay on top of the pile. If a goofy font or strange formatting slows them down, they get irritated and rightfully so.

So far, I have only looked at four queries. Not one has actually submitted a manuscript in the correct format. We only ask for a few chapters, but there are several problems one or all of these people have done. Here is what you should avoid in your cover letter, your synopsis and your manuscript:

rambling, incoherent run-away sentences
bad grammar
spelling mistakes
single spacing…double spacing is the industry standard–it makes it easier to read
not indenting. See that little Tab key on the left…that's what it's for, indenting. Or in some cases you can set up automatic indenting in some programs.
adding an extra space between each paragraph. No no no. That's what indenting does. It tells the reader that there is a new paragraph. Didn't anyone take this in school?
hitting return (or the Enter key) at the end of every line. Absolutely NO NO NO. My gods, this takes so much time to write this way. Computers are somewhat smart. If you write and write and write and just keep going, guess what, the sentence doesn't run off the page but will pop down to the next line. Only when you have finished a paragraph, and only then, do you hit "Enter" and proceed to the next paragraph, not the next line.

Do not, when we send you a rejection letter and suggest that you proofread your work and correct the grammar and typos before sending it elsewhere, send a whiny letter back saying, why can't you just read the story and ignore that? We can ignore a few typos of a bit of awkward grammar but a whole book of it is unreadable and means a rewrite. We're not  going to buy anything that takes that much trudging. We will not do that much editing. Fix it and use a spellchecker. But remember, a spellchecker is not that bright and will suggest what it thinks your sentence should be so you better know your words.

Treat writing like any other skill. Would you want a doctor who just happened to be sloppy but knew he had the heart of a surgeon? Would you ride in a plane where the pilot had read about flying but never had done it? Writing is a skill and it takes practice. It also takes following some simple rules once the writing is done and you're trying to sell your piece. Always read the guidelines. I've made mistakes when I submit stories. It's easy to gloss over but when you get to submitting a manuscript you need to be even more careful. What I posted about is the standard but some publishers ask for different formats. Follow them.

http://www.chizine.com/chizinepub/submission_guidelines.php

Filed under: art, culture, entertainment, publishing, Writing Tagged: Chizine Publications, CZP, formatting, illuminated manuscripts, manuscripts, publications, publishers, selling novels, submissions, submitting manuscripts, Writing

What is Fantasy?

In the world of writing and reading there are genres and sub-genres. Some (though possibly not all) of those genres are: romance, literary, horror, fantasy, science fiction, thriller, mystery, mainstream, slipstream  (or cross-genre),western (though mostly defunct these days) and a host of others. There are many sub-genres and some people will debate that they are genres in their own right. It gets confusing and there is a grey line between some.

For the world of fantasy, some of the sub-genres are: dark fantasy, magic realism, mythological, sword & sorcery, high or medieval fantasy, heroic fantasy, epic fantasy, urban fantasy, etc. Your mileage may vary. First fantasy is a story written in a world or time that is not now or historical. However, it also has a fantastical element, something that is more than the world we know. It could be magical creatures (vampires, fairies, hobbits, unicorns) or it could be a form of magic or a system/organism that works differently. Angels, people who can disappear at will, who move faster than normal, who must eat rocks, who can transform themselves or others, sentient planets, mystical vessel, curses and blessing, gods, carnivorous trees, firebreathers, aquatic being, winged creatures, etc. All these are fantasy. But fantasy can also be a bit less than this. It can be the world of today but there are ghosts and that's it. I'll briefly define the sub-genres.

Dark Fantasy–this could really be any of the above elements but with a darker mien than the regular tropes. In other words it has a horrific or tragic element. Now many of the fantasy novels being published could also be labeled dark fantasy, and really dark fantasy is the new label for horror. Horror fell out of favor with mainstream publishers years ago and it was better to label something fantasy or thriller. So dark fantasy will deal with the shadow side of the world and its characters far more. Beings might be abused and die and inevitably there will be dark forces that can prevail. Lord of the Rings could be dark fantasy but is usually just labeled fantasy. It falls in a number of categories. The Princess Bride would be fantasy or humorous fantasy if you need to define it more.
Magic Realism–often this is Latin American writing, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez's works, but many other people write it as well. It is surreal and very much in the modern world that you and I live in. There may be no sense of wonder because the one aberrant thing is either hidden to most people or possibly known by everyone but taken as commonplace and their part of the world. It could be a woman having a conversation with an angel or one that I read, about a boy born a centaur who goes through his life trying to have a surgery to correct this condition. Magic realism will have a heavy focus on the human condition.
Mythological–this may take place in the historic past, the present or the future. It could involve gods or other mythological beings. It could be based on a creation or destruction myth. Basically all those ancient tales of gods are the first fantasy, except that the people of the time believe them and they were the religion. But the story of Gilgamesh and other adventure tales were pretty much your first fantasy stories.
Sword & Sorcery–pretty self-explanatory. Usually set in pre-industrial times or on other worlds, often medieval but could be Renaissance, Hun, Pictish or a hundred other times and place. S&S involved magic and fighters, and yes Lord of the Rings is sword and sorcery as well.
High or Medieval Fantasy–these will involve grand adventures and epic scale battles or fighting the forces of good and evil. High fantasy isn't always medieval but it is often enough, Katherine Kurtz's books are an example of medieval fantasy. It's your basic feudal systems, rulers, battles and perhaps a few wizards and dragons thrown in though what these creatures or their abilities will truly be will differ. Yes, Lord of the Rings fits in here too.
Heroic & Epic Fantasy–I'm lumping these two together though they could be defined as slightly different, where the first could be about a solitary hero and the second would possibly cover years and countries and a group. But that's not necessarily true. These two will have heroes, those who sacrifice themselves or their way of life for a greater good, who will battle against great odds and their actions will change much of the world as they know while changing themselves as well. Again Lord of the Rings is also heroic and epic. Robert Jordan and Terry Brooks write this style of fantasy.
Urban Fantasy–takes place in our modern world or one similar but could have bike riding elves, troll waitresses, fairies selling drugs or whatever. The example I gave is kind of cliché now but it all depends on the story and how it's written. It can also involve someone who sees creatures feeding on the souls of others, or a particular breed of magical being living in Hawaii. But mostly urban fantasy is…urban.

These definitions are by no means complete or absolute. Others will interpret the sub-genres of fantasy differently. Some will count alternate histories and steampunk under fantasy and it may well have fantastical elements as well as historical and scientific. Hence why we have grey boundaries to the genres. I worked in a bookstore for years specializing in the speculative genre and I still couldn't keep them straight.

Filed under: entertainment, fairy tales, fantasy, myth, publishing, Writing Tagged: dark fantasy, demons, epic fantasy, fairies, fantasy, gods, magic, magic realism, mythology, sword and sorcery, urban fantasy, Writing

The Work Less Party Works Less

In BC, the Work Less Party was a group of slightly organized people who wanted to move the work week to 32 hours. They began in 2003 and actually had a few candidates in 2005, but after that the Party dwindled. Part of the party's mandate was to have more fun. And like our Rhino party of yesteryear they were never taken that seriously, even by themselves. They were de-registered this summer and no longer exist as a political party, but the party goes on.

It is now a big party. If you check out the site with the lofty ideals, it hasn't been updated since 2008. http://www.worklessparty.org/ And if you find the party site, it hasn't been updated since March. Considering they just had a party this weekend you can see how working less doesn't always work. http://www.worklessparty.org/party/party.htm I imagine there is a Facebook page, with most of the details but I try to avoid too much FB as being a great resource suck when it comes to parties.

I had gone to two parties before and they were definitely an excuse to dress in wild costumes or work on your Hallowe'en outfit before the big weekend. But what do you get? They take place in a giant auditorium–you know the style, from your school days–with a stage and a big empty hall. There are no chairs so don't dream on sitting down. There are usually a few completely lame booths that nobody seems to attend. I've seen the hugging booth, the spanking booth, the chillout booth, etc. You must buy tickets to get your booze and then get in the lineup and hope there is any.

There is usually a costume and body painting contest, and  while this is on the stage, if you're not six-feet tall you'll probably only see the back of someone's head or glimpse the outfits. What I have seen of the body painting is quite stunning and may involve dancing, skits or acrobatics. There is also an upstairs area that is smaller and more festive in look, with a DJ.

I found after two of these parties with 500 plus people that it was just a crush of incredibly rude and self-serving party-goers. There are  stairs to the other floor and people stop and chat or just get stuck in the jam. I said excuse me as I tried to squeeze past the people coming down. I mean, it's what people do, right? Try to be polite? But no, I was dissed for doing so and someone said nasty things that I won't repeat.

As for the alcohol, if you drink only beer, you're okay. But last time they ran out of wine and cider by 11:00 pm. The lineups are long and everyone is out for themselves, suspiciously eying the person behind them who is pushing forward. Most of all you can expect a crush of costumed humanity at this party. After two of them I left feeling quite bored. I swore off of going to the giant cattle pen.

However, a friend was having a birthday and she really wanted to go with a group of people. There were probably about 15 of us and I finally buckled and went. I made the mistake of wearing a dress that had a train, and even though I had that pinned up it began to drag through the night. The floor was a morass of slimy mud from the rain. Slippery and treacherous, so one had to be careful moving through the crowds. And crowds. There is this narrow hallway that you must enter through and as we first arrived, we stood off to the side as many people do. But that did not stop people from bulldozing us down. I had to fix the pin on my dress and someone pushed me. I said hey, and the guy told me I was taking up too much space. Really, I can only take up the space that my body requires. Not even five minutes into the place and the attitudes began. I called him an asshole and pushed him out of the way telling him that he was too tall and taking up too much space.Yeah, I gave it back but I'd already been pushed five times.

That's one reason I hate the Work Less party, because any thin excuse for manners goes out the door. To complicate matters, the disorganizers chose to put the ticket sales on one side of the entry door and the tables for getting your alcohol on the other, causing long lines that people must push through. When I got to the alcohol , I stood there for almost ten minutes with a whole bunch of people as every server was juggling getting drinks. Granted those poor folks are volunteers but some foreplanning would have helped, like a couple of people pouring and others serving. And when I asked what else there was besides beer there was only rum or vodka, with no mix, served in giant cups. Very mickey mouse.

The dancing was fun with pretty good DJ action, and we planted ourselves in one spot to help avoid the giant crush of people. But some doofus must have thought it funny to pull the fire alarm. Try to get over 500 drinking people out of a hall where at first we couldn't hear the alarm. But we had to exit, with no place to put your drink. The bouncers said, you have to exit but you can't take your drink so chug it. Pure rum or vodka? No thanks. Then the alarm went off and everyone went back in but the firemen had not been through, so then we got to exit again. Good fun, that.

I can't say that the lack of adequate alcohol, the more and more disorganization, the giant crowd (and I hate crowds) and the uber rudeness encouraged me to ever go again. The Work Less party could do with a bit of working better.

Filed under: culture, entertainment, life, music, politics Tagged: attitude, costumes, drinks, entertainment, parties, politics, rudeness, Work Less Party

Google: Just Another Name For Big Brother

Were you suspicious at all when Google decided to film every street in your city? Did you even notice when it seems they captured more than just an image of the street, that there were some car license plates, discernible faces, and even pictures into people's living rooms, not to mention a few burglaries? Or were you blasé and accepting of another way in which we're being watched constantly and in Google slowly taking over the world in a myriad of digital ways? I sometimes wonder what would happen should Google turn out to be a political force.

There are people who called us paranoid when we worried about all these captured images. I wondered how well would it work for people planning espionage. I haven't searched using Google Earth much but it's been minimally helpful. The only time I looked outside of North America was to research for a story that takes place in Ireland, and it turns out there is only a satellite image of parts of Ireland, no street views. Well there is sort of a street view of Dublin, in parts, but with digital approximations of buildings for other areas. Who knows what other countries have but I hear the Germans are pretty suspicious of Google snooping and are limiting what they'll be able to digitize.

And no wonder. With the heightened paranoia of terrorism and bombs many countries don't want full images of their streets and sewer systems, communications areas, etc. outlined in such explicit detail. But that's not all. The new millennium's Big Brother is Google and it is everywhere. Yes, most of us use it as a medium for one thing or another, such as the search engine. Google tried to copy all books including those in copyright, infringing on all sorts of copyright laws and then hoping no one would notice. They claimed they were just moving all books into a way that people could access them easier and this makes sense for out of print books in the public domain. But those that still have estates or authors alive, and therefore existing copyrights, should be protected. Google then arrogantly set up a statement saying you could opt out but then you would have no recourse to complain if they copy one of your books, but if you opt in, you're buying into the system. As opposed to them having to prove the copyright is now public domain, the onus fell on every author and publisher to prove they owned the copyright. This one is still being disputed and it was nice to see that at least some of the apathetic writers' groups in Canada did band together to try to stop them.

But that's not all, is it? Now it turns out that not only was Google capturing images of our streets and homes, it was also capturing passwords and documents if people were working on their computers and did not have their WIFI locked. Hmm, If I stole someone's information, it would be just that. Theft, spying, invasion of privacy. Canada's privacy commissioner has ordered Google to apologize and delete the information. That's it? Does Google even have governments cowed that a slap on the wrist is all they get? How about a charge and massive fines? How about a watchdog checking what they have? How many years ago did the snoop the streets of our cities and we're just finding this out now?

I said I'd be worried if Google was a political force but I'm already worried that it could be behind a political force, supplying stolen information to governments with less that honorable tendencies. I'd be naive to think they didn't know they were doing this and stupid not to question why. And if any of you are smart, you'll be asking these questions too and making sure Google is investigated and regulated before they do take over the world.

Filed under: crime, internet, news, politics, security, technology Tagged: Big Brother, capturing passwords, digital information, digital theft, google, Google Earth, maps, spying

Ghostwriting: The Great Fallacy

I often see on Craigslist and other places where someone wants to write the story of their life or perhaps their one great novel, observations on the mating rituals of hummingbirds, or the meanings of shadows cast by the great pyramids. Anything. Everyone does have a story in them and if there is only one it is the story of their life. However, many people write their novels without comprehending the writing and publishing process, without taking training or otherwise learning the ropes. Would you want a pilot who had been trained first? Would you want a surgeon who just knew he had it in him? Writing, like any craft or skill takes training and practice. Few of us are naturals.

Some people recognize this. They realize they don't have the skill to write the story they want to tell, or they don't have the time. So they want a ghostwriter, who is someone that writes the story but someone else's name is put on the book. Ghostwriters are also used for a lot of those novels that have a famous movie/rock star's name attached. In very few cases has that star actually written the book. In some cases the star may have actually come up with the idea but has no clue how to write the story. William Shatner's Tekwar books were not written by him though I believe he did give input or supply at least some of the plots. But his name will sell whereas George Smith might not.

Some people who want someone to write their life story (or other interesting event) might post for a writer. And they'll often offer, as compensation, a percentage of sales. I wonder how many people actually ever get someone naive enough to fall for this venture. There are several things wrong with undertaking such a job. If you're an aspiring writer, you want to write your own ideas. If you're a writer, who writes articles or even books, well, you want to make a living off of your writing. If Jane Doe got George Smith to write her biography, George not only has to be a good writer himself, he has to devote a great deal of time to listening to Jane's ideas and life history going back and forth with her to get or clarify details as well as probably her reading over the manuscript and making him change piece upon piece. She might also have scrawled notes on all sorts of scraps of paper that have to be deciphered and put in order.

The hours involved in such a venture can be astronomical and to work on spec is highly unlikely and pretty well stupid. If someone says to me well, I'll give you 50% of the sales or what I get paid, you better have a contract and a good fairy. Here are the factors to consider on the way to getting published. Is the writing good enough? Is the story interesting enough with the right amount of information and detail? Is it something others will want to read? Is it a story that a publisher will want to buy? Will it sell many books? Presume that you won't sell more than $2,000, work out the cover price after looking at other books that are similar, then subtract 40% right off the top. After that, consider that the publisher still has to pay the printer and their staff and you get only a small percentage. Perhaps it is a percentage against royalties. Perhaps it's a flat rate. Perhaps it's print on demand and they only print ten copies at a time at $20. You get maybe 40% of net earnings. I've sold ten at $200, which means that 40% is $80. What percentage does that writer get and is it worth it?

The problem is, unless you're writing a famous person's bio or have signed a deal with a major publisher who guarantees you this much to write the novel, writing someone else's story is a crapshoot. I would never do it unless I was paid a rate, a very high rate, either by hour or by page. And if I'm writing my own novel, just how much time do I want to devote to someone else's? I can't say I would never do this but I certainly would never be a ghostwriter for the dream of sales.

Filed under: art, culture, publishing, Writing Tagged: biographies, craft of writing, ghostwriting, net sales, pay for writing, publishing, research, Tekwar, William Shatner, Writing